Gingerbread Thanksgiving

This might be Haynes' favorite part of his Thanksgiving feast. I love visiting Gingerbread with Haynes. He literally doesn't want to leave my side...so good for a mommy's heart!




Ella had a fun feast too! She has so many sweet girlfriends in her class this year. I'm so thankful for all those sweet girls!!
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Haynes Cole

This kid makes me laugh...we were driving to my parents for Thanksgiving. I get to make Judi's green bean casserole for our family. I have to make 2 because people like it do much...Haynes on the other hand thought he was going to throw up because of the smell...I'm glad I don't take things too personally:-)
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Dessert competition

We celebrate Thanksgiving with my family the Sunday before Thanksgiving. We have a new fun tradition of a dessert contest and all of my kids love to participate.



Ella decided to make heart shaped cake pops. We made some with raspberry filling and then some with chocolate filling. They are adorable...just like her:-)



Port decided to make pilgrim hats out of cookies and candy. I think he enjoyed rating along the way the most.



Haynes won last year with a cute turkey treat. This year he made some pretzel candies that might be my favorite. I hope he is as successful as he was last year!!
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First walking injury

I picked Halle up from Mom's Prayer and one of the sitters apologized because she had some scratches. She apparently stood up by herself on the concrete and tried to take a step. I told her we were thrilled to have walking injuries...we celebrate everything!😉
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Halle beth

We brought an "oldie but a goodie" from our Greystone house. All of our kids have loved this toy Grandad and JuJu got for Port when he was a baby. Now it's Halle's turn....and we can't hardly keep the older three off of it for her to play on! This is after the big kids have gone to bed, otherwise there would be kids hanging from all parts. Our little one is moving all over and we are believing for a walker by Thanksgiving!
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Where have I been?!?

Last night a friend reminded me that I haven't posted anything since September, and the post was about July!!!
This is a picture that accurately describes what I've been doing...
We are in the process of building a new home and it couldn't be more fun! Unfortunately those nights I could sit and blog are long gone and now I sit and research types of door hinges and concrete colors! I absolutely couldn't do this without the help of my two families. This is a picture of me trying to do "it" on my own.
I'm meeting Jade and the counter top guy inside the house. Haynes, Ella, and Halle are in the car watching Leap Frog peacefully I think...Haynes comes in to the house after about 10 minutes to tell me Halle is crying. I tell him to get her a snack from the back of the car and I'll be there in 5 minutes. Haynes returns to the house 5 minutes later and explains she is REALLY upset! I finally end my meeting and run out to the car to find this....
Haynes chose a squeeze fruit pouch to give Halle as opposed to the goldfish. She was completely covered and beyond upset!
Oh how I love my sweet kids! 😉
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Happy Birthday Port!

 Happy birthday Port Robert!

He requested crepes for breakfast even though Bri wasn't here, I can't even believe that my baby is seven years old!!  I am so proud of the man of God he has become and continues to grown into.

 We had tennis lessons and then lunch at Johnnies with all his cousins.  We usually try to eat at Johnnie's on Port's birthday since that's where I went into labor with him.  

 Then we headed to Andy Alligator's Water Park with his cousins.  It was SO much fun!!  All the kids absolutely LOVED it!

That night we headed to the farm to cook out, shoot bb guns, fish and then the boys spent the night with Champ.  Since Brian was still in South Africa we convinced him to wait to have his party until Brian got home.  Brian was so great at hiding a few fun things for Port in the house so he had to go on a treasure hunt for them while talking to Brian on the phone.  I think it was a pretty amazing day!

Jacob's Wedding

 My "cousin" Jacob got married while Brian was gone, so I loaded all the kids up and took them to a beautiful wedding chapel in Guthrie.  My mom took this shot of Haynes...He is just too cute for words!

 All my kids were beyond confused why they weren't actually in the wedding:-)  Ella was in complete awe of the Bride.

When we got to the reception I went to find a table and Haynes and Ella came walking up with drinks. They managed to find the drink table all on their own.  They thought the wedding was a complete success:-)

The Trails

The Trails does a fun fireworks performance and games.  Since Brian was gone I decided to go ahead and take everyone by myself.  We rode our golf cart to the course and enjoyed the night with some friends.  Ella is not the biggest fan of fireworks, which makes enjoying fireworks a little difficult:-)  I laughed as we left the Trails with everyone crying for their daddy in our golf cart stuck in traffic...I love making memories:-)

Prepping for the Parade

 The Trails has a fun parade on the 4th of July.  We all met at Jake and Kourtney's to decorate bikes and scooters together.

The kids had the best time getting creative with all our supplies!

South Africa Bound

 Brian got to go to South Africa this summer with these guys for 12 days.  We were so excited for him, but missed him a ton!  We all went up to the airport to see them off, I wasn't quite prepared for their reaction when he left.

 Kisses for Haynes my tenderhearted

 Hugs for our sensitive Port

 Kisses for Ella- who surprised us all by being the most upset!

We are so proud of Brian and the way he leads our family.  After Brian left I had to walk back to the car with 4 crying kids...we were quite a sad sight.  Thankfully everyone rallied and handled Brian being gone so well.  We missed him a ton and counted the days until he got home!!

4th of July at the Lake

 Isn't she just the cutest little thing you've ever seen?!  

She's wearing Ella's old swimsuit too:-)

 THe 4th at the lake is always so fun with all of our families.  This year we've missed the Noles family at the lake since they are building a new lake house.  

My kids love nothing more than being with their cousins!!!

T-ball

 The last t-ball game of the year we recruited an out of state player:-)  It was so fun letting the boys play together.  Maybe next year we'll convince Jade to come play for the season!

Lolli and Champ got a new puppy named Sandy.  Everyone got to meet Sandy at the game for the first time too!  The kids LOVE her!!

Basketball Camp

We thought we were going to be out of town for the UCO basketball camp, but we actually made it back in time!  I got to drive the boys to Edmond every morning for 3 days.  The boys had the best time and learned a ton.  This was one of Brian's favorite camps as a kid too!  

Campus Fun

 We got home and couldn't wait to see some of our favorites!  Haynes cried the last two days of our trip because he missed Beau so much:-)  We headed to campus for dinner and fountain hopping...maybe a little swimming!

I just love these two!

*Funny story...

While we were at the beach Haynes lost his flip flops one day.  He says he put them at #2...but we never figured out what that was...since we only brought one pair of flip flops he got a new pair.  When we went fountain hopping Haynes managed to lose a second pair of flip flops.  Brian was sure he could find them so took a bike and rode campus for 1.5 hours after we put kids to bed...never found them!  Haynes had to work every day for a week to earn back some new flip flops.  He has been ever so careful ever since:-)

Family Pictures

Seaside Florida

 Brian downloaded all of the pictures on his computer from our trip, so here are the few I had...

We "Thundered Up" for 3 games while we in Florida.  

 We had such a great time with our kiddos!  They just LOVED the beach, the pools, riding bikes, everything!  I just love watching all of their little love cups get overflowed from time with us!

 These boys LOVED playing and wrestling for the ball at night.  It was so fun watching them play so hard...I love having boys!

Love this beach beauty!  

Halle Beth

Halle had Minnie shirts too!  WE literally threw her in the car, hoping she would stay asleep.  Halle, like the rest of my kids, is a complete extrovert.  If there's something going on she must be awake...needless to say she didn't sleep the rest of the day!  Even without much sleep she is still a complete joy!  Just look at that face!!

SuRpRiSe!!!

 We have been planning a trip to Seaside to celebrate my brother's 30th birthday, but a few weeks ago we decided to tag on two days at DisneyWorld.  We decided not to tell the kids until the morning we were leaving, because we didn't think there would ever be another time in our lives that we could keep that secret:-)  The plan felt PERFECT until we realized our flight left at 5am and we stayed up until 12am watching the Thunder game...Port too!!  

I bought a HUGE box and two life size Mickey and Minnie Mouse balloons.  We filled the box and tied a bow around it.  Brian and I went into the kids room at 3:00am and turned on the lights.  We told the kids that we found this box that they all needed to open together.  Port and Ella jumped out of bed, Haynes took a little more time:-)  Eventually they all opened the box and the HUGE balloon came flying out.  They all said, "WE ARE GOING TO DISNEY LAND!!"  

Ella ran to Brian and hugged him and said, "Thanks for surprising us Daddy!"

 When they came in the living room I had everything laid out for them.  Ella had a minnie shirt and princess flip flops.  The boys had mickey mouse swim suits.  

We quickly got dressed and hoped in the car!  

Disney World here we come!!

Thunder vs. Heat

Brian and I got to go to Game 2 of the NBA Finals with Bob and Judi.  We were so excited and didn't even care that we were leaving the next morning at 5 for vacation!!  Unfortunately we didn't win, and the series didn't end well.  We had the best time cheering them on though... Go Thunder!

Dance Camp

While the boys were in football camp the girls got to go to dance camp, this might have been the highlight of the summer.  The girls LOVED it!  I was so impressed by how many little dances they learned, cutest crafts, and they just LOVED going!  A few weeks before the camp they called and told me I was on the waiting list, but I knew that couldn't be right.  Most things I would have let it slide, but Ella has been talking about this ALL summer.  Thankfully they realized the mistake and these three cousins had the best time.  Oh how I love their sweet relationship!

FCA Football Camp

 The boys went to FCA football camp this summer.  They were so excited that all the cousins got to do it together!  It about killed Brian that he never got to come watch them practice.

Each day they awarded a "Camper of the Day."  My boys were so disappointed the first day when they didn't get it, so we talked about what being a "Camper of the Day" looked like...Port won the award on the last day and was SO excited!  In fact after they gave him his armbands that match the OU football team he came and found me first thing...LOVE THAT!  

*Thank you KD for showing our boys to love their mommy's well:-) 

 Yep that's Haynes vs. Dax...

We had a great time at football camp and can't wait for next year!

Journey VBS

Dax and Crew went to Journey's VBS and invited our boys on the "bring a friend" day.  My boys had a great time and were so upset they were going to miss the big family night.  We had a baseball game and then Brian and I headed to Dallas for a weekend away.  Jade and Angie took Port after the game and they had the best time!  So thankful for cousins!